Sensors, e.g., infrared sensors and cameras, are most frequently used for surveillance. Infrared sensors are relatively cheap. However, infrared sensors can only detect binary events, i.e., whether there is an intrusion or not. Cameras are relatively expensive, and based surveillance system become complex when it is desired to identify and classify objects in their field of view.
In both cases, the detection area is limited by a relatively small field of view, and therefore a large number of sensors must be used for wide-area surveillance.
Microwave back-projection can also be used for wide-area surveillance. Microwaves are electromagnetic (EM) waves with wavelengths shorter than one meter and longer than one millimeter, or frequencies between 300 megahertz and 300 gigahertz. (UHF, SHF, EHF).
An incident microwave is transmitted by a transmitting antenna array, which is a “leaky” coaxial cable. The leaky coaxial cable has slots punched into the outer conductor sheath that radiate the microwave, which is received by a receiver antenna array that is also a leaky coaxial cable with slots.
A moving object “scatters” the received signal, see Inomata et al., “Microwave back-projection radar for wide-area surveillance system,” 34th European Microwave Conference, 2004. Volume 3, Issue, 11-15, pages 1425-1428, October 2004, incorporated herein by reference. They used a spread spectrum technique that combines IQ demodulation with complex FFT to obtain a two-dimensional space representation of the scattered wave. The spread of the microwave in this space was used to detect intruders. However, because their technique only analyzes the overall level of the electromagnetic field, they can only detect binary intrusion events, like an infrared sensor. That is, they cannot distinguish the kind of intruder (human, vehicle, animal, etc.) that entered the observed space.